Taking a Collaborative Approach to our Students’ Research in Education Settings

Solvason, Carla ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3072-0079, Watson, Nicola ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6989-1281, Tillsley, J.E. and Bizarro Correia, D. (2023) Taking a Collaborative Approach to our Students’ Research in Education Settings. School Community Journal, 33 (1). pp. 191-209. ISSN 1059-308X

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Abstract

In the United Kingdom (U.K.), all students who are studying for a Bachelor of Arts degree need to complete a piece of independent research in order to gain their “honours” (U.S. “honors”) status. As a university faculty we have very specific ideas about the purpose of this research and the positive impact that we hope that it will have upon the U.K. settings (mainly schools and kindergartens) in which it is carried out, which we discuss in this article. Although our approach would appear successful, this judgement has so far been based upon the evidence of the final, summative project alone. Obtaining a small amount of funding from the university for students to act as co-researchers provided the ideal opportunity to explore the topic further by collecting empirical data from students and settings. Because our original plans for data collection were disrupted by COVID-19, we gained responses through an anonymous survey which enabled frank responses from both students and staff in settings. Although the data collected was, overall, encouraging, it did raise some issues for us, as faculty tutors, to consider. These include the way that we convey the importance of students carrying out their projects independently (that is, without university supervisor intervention) to settings themselves, and how we ensure that the students collaborate with settings at all stages of the project.

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